I work for a record label, but not one of the big five that were sued for price fixing. Small independent labels such as ours do not engage in that practice, and we have, in fact, been harmed by it. Equating the retail cost of a CD to what it costs to stamp out that piece of polycarbonate would be like equating the retail cost for the bowl of cereal my daughter ate this morning to what the grain in the box actually costs, i.e. perhaps less than a penny–yet I paid $3.50 for the box of cereal. (“Who stole Metallica’s money? Record companies are the culprits, not Napster users,” Tempo, May 17). Cost of manufacturing has very little to do with the retail cost of anything.
At our label, the talents and time of more than 60 people are utilized to plan, record, produce, sell, market and account for each CD we release–not including manufacturing, transportation, advertising or distribution. All those people have mortgages, rent, car payments, grocery bills, etc. Music cannot be produced for free any more than reporting the news can be performed for free (reporter Greg Kot was paid for his writing, was he not?). The rights of the creators and distributors of intellectual property need to be fairly protected from theft or misdirection. Distributing intellectual property without proper compensation can only bring about the eventual end of its further creation.
